Last Minute Heroics
by FullMentalPanic
Summary: Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it. But remembering doesn't guarantee you won't recycle through the same situations. Sometimes, though, that can be a Godsend. Korso-centric. Reunion Prompt [Twelve Shots of Summer: Second Raid]


**Last Minute Heroics**

Whatever issues he might have with the military, at least the respect was legitimate. He knew that every guy next to him had been through the same splitting and shaving in basic to be able to stand there. For everything the higher officers had to survive to make rank, especially with all the bar raising that happened in 2918 and 3005, he didn't mind calling them sir. Civilians were another matter entirely. It was one of those oddly true contradictions that he'd be willing to lay his life on the line for Mr. Jones, Mrs. Jones, and Jones Jr., but they weren't guaranteed a sir or ma'am. Very few civilians earned that.

Sam Tucker got pulled onto the Titan Project about the same time as Joseph Korso. It was a conglomerate from several other long running research endeavors that suddenly realized they might be able to accomplish more together than apart. He was a Second Lieutenant, and figured it was a worthy cause to contribute to before it finally reached some of its projected potential fifty to seventy years from now. Professor Tucker believed they could have a fully functioning model in under a decade.

Something about him reminded Korso of the basic protagonist in 20th century vids. The way Professor Tucker held himself, would look you in the eye, and would light up when he was talking all earnestly about about achievement and possibilities, it just screamed noble, naive, and brave. It was hilarious, and Korso decided they were going to be friends.

Sam had weird, archaic taste in alcohol and would always go for exclusively earth brewed stuff. Oh, he'd try some of the interstellar varieties, but he always stuck with his home planet if someone else wasn't buying.

After a few minutes of talking to him, Korso had to revise the naive category. Naivete only held onto and believed the things it did because it didn't know any better and couldn't stand on its remaining rickety legs as soon as one got knocked out. Sam would go off with impractical optimism that Korso expected to collapse as soon as he poked a few wry holes in it.

To his surprise, Sam didn't look shocked or embarrassed, or start to wildly and inelegantly defend himself. His eyebrows drew together but his smile was slight, and just a little excited. Korso had felt that expression on his own face, except his own grin had crazy and smug mixed in. It was what happened when you knew the weaknesses of your own position, and you saw the cost it would take to cover them, and you were going to pay it anyway. Sam's philosophy didn't have anything to do with how easy or how attainable it was, he just thought it was worth it. If the professor thought it was at all possible, he was going to go for it.

As Korso got to know him better, he also reworked his ideas on what he thought had been Sam's sense of honor. That sincerity and seriousness, Korso had translated it as a universal belief in the dignity of humanity. Not to say Sam didn't believe in that, but the root cause was more fundamental. Sam loved his family more than anything. Any faith in humanity was just overflow from how much he believed in his wife and kid.

They were on good terms by then, and Korso figured he'd be invited over for dinner at some point and get to meet the family in person. Then one day Sam came into work more quiet than usual. None of the usual banter seemed to get more than two sentences. Korso was starting to get worried when Tek, one of only three offworlders allowed anywhere near the Titan Project, pulled him aside and whispered that Sam's wife had died.

Oh.

Sam got even more wrapped up in his kid after that. His smile grew a little more slight, except when he talked about the one remaining member of his family. He got more earnest, and his eyes lit with even fiercer hope for the end goal of their project. Technically, he wasn't part of the military, but Korso called him sir.

Time, blood, and sweat stacked up enough to get Korso to First Lieutenant, and a bare four years after it started, the Titan Project had its ship. Korso was not a scientist, but he knew enough to be amazed at what had been accomplished. He couldn't write a dissertation on the process of getting where there were or explain more than the fundamentals of how it would work, but he knows that things were going to change.

Four months after that, the Drej attacked.

They didn't know anything until the Drej were actually in the system. By that point Earth's intelligence network got enough to realize the top priority shouldn't be sending out a diplomacy ship but getting everyone _out._

It was rushed and haphazard, and no one was sure exactly what the Drej were planning. They did know the Drej wanted the Titan, so they made sure that was one Christmas wish that wouldn't get realized. Korso could feel the energy of the impossible situation getting under his skin, and he felt the stretch of his grin as he knew he was going to stand under fire and dive for the chance of success. They'd have to get the Titan off-planet in less than fourteen minutes...and Sam wouldn't do anything until he got his kid.

"Yes, sir."

Sam wasn't crucial to the initial prep, and Korso and Tek were still throwing together a hasty and skeletal plan when they picked up the Tuckers in a hovercraft. Korso had an impression of a blond kid who wanted to drive the craft, and then they were zooming out to the evac point. Sam took longer than they could afford to reassure the little guy. How much could a five year old understand of the situation anyway? Both Korso and Tek had tried to prod him on several times by the time Sam was willing to move. Even if he didn't understand all of it, the kid knew enough, and he fought against Tek and screamed after Sam as he was carried away to his evac ship.

Sam gave Korso the order to drive in the opposite direction without glancing back, and Korso watched him sideways and got all possible speed out of the craft. That old, brows drawn together look was there, but the smile was completely gone. Neither of them knew where Tek would take the kid; no one would be able to wring that information out of their brains if it wasn't there in the first place. Anything for after Earth was pretty much implied or just discussed in clipped probabilities and likelihoods. Again, Korso realized that for Sam saving the Titan boiled down to something more personal. He was doing it for his son, and he'd walk through death to make sure it happened.

Korso sent him off with an ancient blessing, shouted at his running form as Sam dashed for the entrance to the Titan. Eyes forward, not looking back.

Korso barely got to a ship leaving the planet, something small and fast and military grade that was still half stuffed with civilians. Crammed next to a staff sergeant and an old lady with a tye-dyed knapsack, Korso could see out of a window with one eye.

They'd been sure the Drej would obliterate the area that held the Titan and the only reason Earth hadn't been fired on yet was because the Titan's location wasn't known. The Drej weren't nearly that subtle. Korso felt a mix of horror and hope when the mothership fired on an area no where near the Titan's launch point. That faint hope faltered and turned to a dawning sense of doom as the mothership kept firing, until the core of Earth heated and threaded red through the planet's surface. The Drej wouldn't search for a needle, they would just blow up the haystack.

A few weeks later, Korso was able to reach one of the outposts that he and Sam had discussed as a good jumping off point for the Titan. It had been months ago, and was a long shot, but it paid off. There had been a human male matching Sam's description there only few days ago. He had left when Drej showed up in the system.

Korso was as livid as anyone would be after barely missing the species who had destroyed his homeworld, but he was also annoyed. Sam hadn't simply laid low or fled a few keks to circle back. Which meant he'd been leading the Drej away. It could be the Titan was nearby, but it was also possible he was trying to keep the Drej from running into Korso when Korso came looking for him. Which was annoying. Korso was a soldier, but Sam was a scientist and shouldn't be assuming he'd do better against a militant race than an actual military man, or that Korso wouldn't survive without some dumb, self-sacrificing move.

Korso planned to tell him that, and in language Sam wouldn't be able to repeat in front of his kid, just as soon as he tracked Sam down. Seven dead ends, and three times actually following Sam's trail later, he got to the where the Drej had found Sam, and he found Sam's body.

Finding the Titan was what got him out of bed after that. Korso tracked down an Akrennian acquaintance who was just as wily as Korso himself. A good paycheck, or at least steady employment, had Preed willing to tag along. Finding the Titan was top of the list, but right after that was tracking down Sam's kid. That'd actually help with finding the Titan though, so it was pretty much under the same heading.

They looked for it longer than it took to build the thing. Enough odd jobs came along the way to keep them going. There was also the odd run in with the Drej, whom Korso didn't have any issue frying if they could possibly get away with it.

It was probably that little tic that eventually closed down shop for them. Thirteen years into the search, they got pinned down by Drej. It wasn't quite a guns to their temples situation, but it was a surrounded by twenty stingers situation. In that moment, Korso discovered something about himself. Even more than wanting to save the Titan, to find Sam's kid, to be remembered as someone worthy of respect, Korso didn't want to lose. He didn't want to die in front of a firing squad, and so he did what he knew Sam never would; he cut a deal.

It took fast talking, and his and Preed's wiliness combined, but it worked. They even got the budget to actually find Sam's kid, and Korso decided that was where they'd concentrate they're energy. They'd need a navigator, he didn't know how complicated the genetic map that was linked to Sam's kid was. He found the perfect mix of brilliant and zany, and only asking questions about science that wasn't nearly as easy to find as he'd thought it would be, and signed Gune onto the crew. Having at least one more person who wasn't a slouch at combat would be great, and he managed to find another competent not overly perceptive questioner and hired Stith.

The last hire was a touch more manipulative. Any kid of Sam's would probably jump for the kind of self-sacrificing mission Korso was going to sell this as, but it wouldn't hurt to have someone young enough and hot enough to hold the other part of the kid's attention. Human was also a must to give another link to the necessity of getting the Titan back. Korso wasn't leaving any boxes unchecked though, so she was also a stellar pilot and had enough backbone not to immediately fall for whatever level of good looks and savior complex Sam's kid possessed. Also to his advantage, it amused Preed to flirt outrageously with Akima, and she developed a disdain for every pick up line this side of the galaxy.

Korso had a crew, a ship. He'd finally made captain.

Even then, it took close to a year to find him. Human records weren't guarded closely, but they were also deemed too unimportant to record in the first place. In the end, they had to follow Tek's trail to find the kid. During that time, Korso batted around eight different options for double-crossing the Drej. After everything though, with the time he'd fought them, personally and from a ship, and the wary agreement they had now, he'd come to realize they weren't someone he could escape from or decisively kill. He could run, but they'd eventually catch him. He could definitely injure them, but their regenative abilities would make that moot five seconds after any hit he could land on them.

He didn't know enough science to explain the why or the how, but he knew the power each Drej had zipping through him was inherent, and Korso didn't know how to cut them off from it. The only way he could win would be to partially go along with them, but that didn't quite mean he was cooperative.

With that thought, he walked into the salvage station of Tau 14. Luck seemed to have decided to give him a break after a fifteen year hiatus. He found the kid in an out of the way corridor, still blond, same haircut he had when he was five, and getting roughed up, and close to getting lethally bitten, by two aliens more than twice his size.

It was a golden opportunity for a good first impression and Korso stepped in on the kid's side decisively. The little snot was entirely ungrateful. Up close, it was crazy how much the kid looked like his father, and how much he talked like Korso.

The not so little guy was snide, untrusting, and more than willing to get back at the aliens beating on him while Korso had them tied up and incapacitated. It sent Korso for a loop as he remembered how Sam felt about kicking someone while they were down. It shook him up enough to drop the more oiled intro he'd thought up and and just launch into a speech that he knew would have Sam looking for the sign up sheet.

The kid threw it back in his face. He looked at _Korso_ with a condescending smirk and took the opportunity to land another solid blow on the thugs who had jumped him. Korso was provoked enough to throw first impressions to the wind and untied the two goons. They were smart enough to go after the human they actually had a chance of winning against, and the kid was smart enough to run.

Korso didn't have any time to beat his head against wall before Akima called and let him know Drej were in the system. Time for his best go at a second impression. Which wasn't helped by the fact that he suddenly realized he couldn't recall the kid's actual name for the life of him. All he could think of was broccoli and lettuce.

Fortunately, when he found the kid again, he was with Tek. The blindness inherent to the race had caught up with him, but he recognized Korso's voice immediately. He also dropped the kid's name enough so that Cale sunk into Korso's brain. He tried the more civil approach and pulled out his trump card, he'd worked with Cale's father.

The kid sneered, and said in a tone of deliberate abandoning that he didn't have a father. Korso's grin froze. Half of his brain was wrapped up in despising the brat while the other half was despairing that the little creep had even kept his father's ring. Korso asked anyway, while wondering how long he'd be able to stay ahead of the Drej, and the kid showed the ring off with all the flourish of someone flipping the bird.

Korso managed to keep from hugging him, and triggered the ring so the map Cale carried genetically showed up in his palm. The awe and disbelief was everything Korso could have hoped for, but the kid wasn't quite on board. He needed an extra push. That push came when the Drej marched in, spelling themselves out as the villains and Korso as the kid's only option. They unintentionally had his back like that.

The escape confirmed Korso's choice in making Akima the pilot and revealed that the kid was a cut above mechanic. In the current day and age, when death was just a hull breach away, mechanics saved more lives than soldiers. Korso considered spinning the hero angle again and sent Akima and Preed to patch up the kid from his escape scrapes. Hopefully it would give Cale time to get smitten and possibly softened up to the idea of risking his life if he could impress a pretty girl. Preed would keep things from going too far in any direction. Stith would be the hardest one to win over for the kid, so Korso made her go work on some repairs she was doomed to fail at so she could be all relieved and accepting when Korso revealed the kid was a mechanic.

He couldn't get over how much the kid looked like Sam, and he didn't think it would hurt anything to tell him so. Korso sat the kid down for a drink, figuring that treating him like an adult might win points. The only liquor he had was florescent and something Sam would turn his nose up at. Cale took it without comment.

Korso tried one more time with a Sam geared speech, and it still didn't work. Dwelling on the vulnerabilities of the human species didn't have the kid up in arms wanting to defend them. Revealing the desperate quest they were on didn't motivate the twerp to sign on and bolster their defenses. Instead, the kid focused on his on importance to the mission and tried to leverage it for a deal.

"So if I don't like the way things are going," the kid mused. "I'll show you how much like my father I am."

Korso stifled a laugh. _You? You're nothing like him._

"I'll leave."

The self-assured, mocking expression had Korso fighting the urge to backhand the kid and beg Sam's soul for forgiveness. This wasn't how Sam's kid should be living.

Of course, it would've helped if Sam had left behind some of those last words he had always put so much stock in. Korso hadn't been able to find anything on his body or in the surrounding area for Sam's kid or Korso himself. No letters, no microchip size messages. The Drej might've taken or destroyed anything he had on him, but even before that, Sam hadn't asked Korso to find his son or save the Titan. While Earth was coming apart at the seams, any hastily thrown together plans had been spearheaded by Korso and Tek. Tek had been the one to take the kid and Sam had just jumped on the Titan and roared off into space.

Well, look where that had gotten him. Sam was dead while Korso was still alive and so was Cale, and not by doing any of the heroically useless things his father would. Sam's _son_ had survived by becoming flinty eyed, arrogant, and self-centered.

They reached the first spot on the map with Korso feeling depressed, and hiding it well, and they narrowly avoided a lethal cultural misunderstanding to activate the next checkpoint. Just like that, in a matter of days they were closer to the Titan than Korso had been in the last fifteen years, and he felt a swell of triumph. Standing on the broken moon, choking on the fumes from the hydrogen trees, Cale's face opened up as he stood where his father had, and Korso realized the kid was still clinging to a past he was trying to forget he had.

Which was when the Drej showed up.

Even with the motley but handpicked crew of the Valkyrie, even with scores of self-sacrificing Gauol trying to get them to safety, it wasn't enough. Cale and Akima were snagged and whisked away, and Korso saw red for a solid minute before he was able to muster a plan.

Cale hadn't been on board long enough, but Korso had himself and everyone else on the Valkyrie chipped and trackable. Akima was putting out a signal only they had the code to find, and if they found her they'd find Cale.

Theories never played out the way he hoped.

They sacrificed every decent bedspread on the ship to make Stith's disguise, Korso posed as a slave and put up with getting kicked by Preed, and they only found Akima. The Drej dumped her and kept Cale.

At that point the only plan with a chance of success was hoping the Drej got tired of babysitting the kid and jettisoned him too. They flew aimlessly through nearby space trying to find a Drej drop pod. It begged the question why they were bothering. Gune, Akima, and Stith all thought they were in this for altruism and saving an endangered species. Being consistently employed and thumbing their noses at the dominant race in the galaxy filled in any gaps their ideals might've missed. For him and Preed, twisting obscene wealth out of the Drej by dangling the Titan had been the plan, and that couldn't happen if the Drej found the ship first. On top of that, killing Sam's kid had never been in the cards, and he knew the Drej wouldn't see it that way.

Korso was getting desperate enough to start considering the insanity of going after the mothership itself, when a single stinger zipped onto their scanners. It wasn't the precursor to skads of other Drej fighters, or the mothership bearing down on them. It was the unthinkable. The kid had done what had never been done before, broken out of a Drej cell and then commandeered and figured out how to successfully fly a Drej stinger.

And the kid hadn't flown to the nearest black market post, he'd come back and found them.

Why couldn't that kind of luck and ingenuity have panned out for Sam?

The Drej had copied the map. It was a setback, but they had a fast ship, the original map, and an enormous morale boost. Korso gave himself an extra pat on the back for setting up Cale and Akima and giving the kid more reasons to stick with the mission. In three days or less, the Titan would be in their hands.

Then it would only be a matter of figuring out how to wring as much money as possible out of the Drej for securing the Titan's location, without getting their heads shot off in the process.

Either by the Drej or the rest of the crew of the Valkyrie.

Korso trudged along the metal walkways of his bloodmoney ship and fantasized about rigging the Titan to blow after he'd secured his independent wealth. Of course, then the Drej might just come after him and Preed for revenge, even if they would've destroyed the Titan on their own anyway. It turned his stomach to think of those planet killers pawing through the Titan and ripping out her secrets.

In the darkest, most hidden part of his mind, he dreamed about just taking the Titan. Turning this into the kind of idealistic crusade he's been pretending it was. Of giving the kid the kind of future his father wanted him to have.

It was a pipe dream. As long as the Drej were around, they had the power to destroy anything humanity might try to build or rebuild. The origins of the Drej weren't known, but as soon they showed up on the intergalactic scene, they'd only increased in power. Anything humanity tried to do in numbers would be crushed. The only option was individual success, to lay low and keep your hands and your money in your pockets.

He'd considered the idea of splitting his half of the loot with the kid. At the beginning of this trip, the kid probably would've taken it, but now Korso wasn't so sure. He'll probably have to set it up as an anonymous trust fund, or under Sam Tucker's name to get the kid to accept it. There really wasn't much Korso could do for the kid. He remembered a little blond brat who wanted to fly the hovercraft in the middle of Earth's evacuation.

So Korso let the kid fly the Valkyrie.

It was a last ditch effort to do something for the kid before the waste of a thousand worlds hit the fan and Cale would likely want nothing to do with him. It seemed to work pretty well, and the kid looked as happy as Korso'd ever seen him since they re-met. He even seemed willing to speak candidly.

"Thank you for trying to find me." He meant the search after being nabbed by the Drej as well as the fifteen years with Tek. Korso wondered if he really would've gone against the motherhship to get the kid back. Then it backfired. "It's more than my father ever did."

Korso was able to lock his face into neutral before it twisted into a frown. "You're father was a great man."

Under the normal chip on his shoulder, Cale looked uncertain and unconvinced. The kid needed at least one hero in his life with how Korso was about to betray him, so he offered something else too. With how much Sam loved his family, it might even be true. "He would've been proud of you."

The words seemed to settle and slowly sink in, and the kid admitted something he'd probably been fighting against for a long time. "I miss him."

Korso felt like the universe had slid back into place. "Me too."

He missed Sam's sincerity, the intensity with which he would defy pragmatic opportunism, and how he would never have let Korso get away with what he was doing now. He missed the chance he had to find Sam before the Drej got to him.

Old rage flared up, and Korso decided to contact his allies of inconvenience. He waited until Gune and Stith were busy on the opposite side of the ship, Cale was in the middle of his sleep cycle, and Akima was scheduled to trade some basics with the Drifter Colony they'd braked at. Then he commed up the Drej and ripped into them.

He couldn't really lay into them about Sam, but there was plenty of other recent stuff he could get furious about and he went to town. Some light interference from the Drej would be enough to convince the crew that said Drej were cold-hearted and after humanity in general and them in particular. The diligence, and brutality, with which they were being harassed though was hampering both of their efforts and just slowing down the retrieval of the Titan.

Korso wondered about them, if their brains were fried on full blown synaptic energy and they couldn't figure out how to aid their own cause beyond throwing their weight around and blowing stuff up. Or maybe they were smart enough to know that his loyalty wasn't assured without a gun to his head or money in his hand. Either direction needed some major threats to get back line. They didn't know how much he'd already invested in keeping Sam's kid safe, so he threatened to destroy the key to finding the Titan.

Inevitably, it was right after the communication was cut off that Preed walked in with an eavesdropping Cale and Akima at plasmapoint in front of him. The kid looked more like his father than ever as he asked for the truth. Every moment of anger Korso felt toward Sam for being willing to die instead of compromising came boiling to the surface.

Then, when it was most likely to get him killed, the kid showed whose son he was. Choosing the philosophy that would lead to noble death instead of a survivor's life. The kid was as foolish as his father ever was, and Korso told him so.

Cale tried to attack, which only proved Korso's point. He was ex-military, the kid was a scientist, and Korso grabbed the upper hand with ease. _What, you thought you'd get by on your good intentions? That doesn't win wars. Why can't you see this is the way to stay alive? Why couldn't you see it? Why didn't you ask for help? Why didn't you wait for me? When they asked for the Titan why didn't you just tell them? We could have gotten there first!_

 _Idiot!_

 _Amateur!_

 _Sentimental civilian._

It was letting out over a decade of frustration, but Cale had exactly as many years of disappointment and regret, and humans in general were fighters. Glass shattered across Korso's face and he staggered to the side as burning liquid seeped into the cuts left behind. Cale and Akima had gotten just enough space to run, and they bolted.

Preed raced after them, armed and dangerous. By the time Korso made it to his feet again, Akima had taken a shot to the shoulder, but both she and Cale were beyond reach, on the Drifter Colony side of the locked down doors. The kid glared across the distance with Sam's face and his own hatred, and Korso knew that if he didn't get to the Titan soon, the kid would figure out how to defy the odds, and the lack of transport, and get there first.

It was a race, and Korso didn't bother to slow himself down with keeping up the benevolent appearance he was going for when Cale was on board. The crew could do what he said or they could take an escape pod and eject. They had to beat the Drej, they had to beat Cale, and Sam had gone and hidden the Titan in the colossal maze and shifting danger of the Ice Rings of Tigrin. Even with it narrowed down, it could take years to find the ship in that refracting mess.

Then, like a double edged sword, and just like Korso knew he would, the kid arrived on the scene. Cale had the map in the palm of his hand, and if he could find the Titan, then so could they. Of course, the kid took issue with being tailed, and it turned into a mix of hide and seek and chicken as Cale tried to avoid them and they both tried to keep from being crushed by giant ice crystals. Being in ships the size of a couple of houses didn't matter when there were suspended glaciers the size of a couple of skyscrapers bumping into each other.

Akima's reckless driving got Cale's ship ahead of a collision that blocked the Valkyrie. By the time Korso would be able to find a way around, the kid could double or triple back, get too far ahead to leave any kind of trail, or just take off to another nebula entirely if Tigrin was just one more checkpoint. However, whether they'd forgotten about it or hadn't had time to do anything about it, Akima was still chipped, and the Valkyrie was still tracking her.

The sensor interference they'd been dealing with wasn't enough to throw off the signal entirely. Half an hour later, right in the midst of the ice rings, Korso saw the Titan again.

The kid's ship was already docked, and they needed to track him down before the kid figured out how to get things moving again. Stith and Gune knew Korso wasn't acting the way he was when he recruited them, but they didn't know how far down the road he'd gotten. He made them stay with the Valkyrie and filed them away as something he'd have to take care of later. He didn't have the focus to read into how Preed said he'd already taken care of it.

They were at the Titan. The last person who'd been alive on the ship had been Sam. Maybe he'd managed to get in some last words after all.

The shadows they were walking in suddenly fled, and with a massive rumble the ship came to light. The kid had found the trigger.

Without any shade to hide in, Korso figured they'd be spotted before there was any chance to disarm the kid, but Cale and Akima were apparently distracted. When Korso heard Sam's voice, he understood why.

So, he'd managed to make a last recording. Korso barely registered the words, just listened to the sound. It was all aimed at the kid anyway. There was a good bit about the Titan though. The solid conviction in Sam's long dead voice had Korso worried that he was going to throw in his lot with the death defying odds side instead of the one where he actually survived if he listened to it any longer.

Korso announced his presence by shooting out the projector, shutting up Sam's voice that had never thought to ask for help from the right venues. Like from Korso.

The kid had finally grown into Sam's altruism, and he took up where the projector had cut off. Korso wasn't moved, but mixed in with the triumph of having won was the satisfaction of seeing Sam's kid living up to Sam's legacy.

A second later, Korso knew exactly how Cale had felt when he heard Korso talking to the Drej. A gun was pressed against the base of his skull and Preed was disarming him. The Drej had already been contacted and were on their way, and Korso was just one more human to kill.

Cale and Akima went for last minute reasoning and appeals, Preed went for last minute acid comments, and Korso dove over the side of the control platform. He knew this ship. He'd walked over and through every inch of it in the years it had been constructed. He knew how to avoid being seen on it, how to circle around to get behind an enemy. What he didn't know was how to get out of his current corner without blowing his surprise attack.

Preed didn't see Korso, but Cale did, and he provided a distraction. It was enough for Korso to get close enough to grapple with Preed, to get his hands around the back-stabbing Akrennian's neck and jaw. With the same sound as ripping a drumstick off a thanksgiving turkey, Preed's head wrenched to the side.

With their uniting enemy gone, Korso was reminded that he and the kid still weren't on the same side. If he had any doubts, the hot backwash of a near miss from a blaster let him know the kid was willing to shoot him. Being willing and being able were still two different categories. Korso kicked the gun out of the kid's hands. It was a quick melee exchange after that, and then they were both toppling over the side of the platform, and not on the side with conveniently climbable outcroppings. It was the side with the drop off.

There was still some infrastructure for them to painfully crash into, but it wasn't built with that intention, and fifteen years without maintenance hadn't been kind to that particular section of walkway. It crunched and swung loose under them, tipping Korso over one free side with only a bent piece of railing to grab onto.

He saw the kid, far enough from the edge to get to safety without too much trouble. There was one moment of deliberation, and then the kid was climbing back down, holding out a hand, trying to haul Korso away from the edge.

 _Idealistic Idiot._

Korso didn't let go, but he didn't try to hold on either. The kid looked genuinely upset when he slipped away. Korso was just a tad more focused on where the hopefully sill functional service cables were. Getting back to solid ground from those made him glad he'd kept up with the pullups.

By that point Cale, either thinking Korso was dead or having more important things to do, had cleared out. Korso wasn't under any delusions as he clambered back to intact construction. He'd been written off by the Drej and the only bargaining chip he'd had to keep that from happening was about to get blown up. Yet, Cale wasn't leaving the engine drained Titan. Which could only mean he had some last ditch, suicidal plan to turn the whole situation around, and that he was still planning on coming out of it alive and on top.

Korso would rather go down with a gun in hand than on his knees in front of alien scum. With a not insignificant corner or his mind, he wanted to see Cale surviving and having Sam's heroics pay off in some way. Of Korso's limited options, jumping in on the crusade didn't seem like the worst one. Besides, he wasn't going to let Sam's kid fight off his father's murderers on his own.

He hadn't gone quite dreamy eyed enough to believe that Cale's crew would accept him on nothing more than the stated goodness of his intentions. Fortunately, with some Drej taking potshots at Cale as he frantically tried to get the Titan back in working order, there was the perfect opportunity to show rather than tell. Blowing some stingers out of the airspace with the handy, and gigantic, gun he'd allocated pretty clearly showed which side Korso had thrown his lot in with. Plus, the kid, who brought a toolkit instead of a weapon, wasn't really in a position to argue. That he didn't even try, just accepted, galvanized Korso so much it was ridiculous.

Luck, or a higher cause, was on their side. They held the Drej off with an effectiveness that could only mean the Drej weren't going all out. The blue bug zappers were holding back, they were only trying to keep them from escaping and they weren't trying to destroy the Titan, yet. Whenever something significant got exploded, it was the mothership that took the shot, and Korso could see it edging into position.

Cale still hadn't fixed his little maintenance project, but they didn't have time for an elegant and mechanically viable solution. Korso wasn't a scientist, but he knew what a circuit was, and that the oversized blaster he was hauling was just the right size to bridge the gap between the breakers. He had to physically throw Cale out of the room to get the kid back to the bridge where he belonged, where he could operate the final sequence, and where he could survive.

What would Sam's death mean if his kid didn't live? What would Korso's if he didn't help it happen?

The circuit breaker room didn't hold any special significance. It was like a half a dozen other rooms in the Titan where Sam had tinkered with the wiring and poured over the schematics while Korso tried to talk him down from burning himself out on a project that was probably going to take at least twenty years to make any significant progress. The room wasn't important, but Korso could remember Sam standing at that exact panel and complaining that the screw sockets had been stripped.

An explosion right on the surface of the Titan blew in enough debris and destructive force to take the time for Korso's life choices down to seconds. There was a hole right through his space suit, and through his body. Blood dribbled and floated in the low gravity. Korso jammed another piece of debris into the tear, enough to keep too much blood from getting exposed to the vacuum. He hoisted the gun and sized up the gap between the breakers. In the moment before his brain focused exclusively on what needed to be done and how he was going to do it, he considered a possibility.

Maybe the whole lack of notes, or instructions, or requests concerning Sam's son or the Titan hadn't been from disbelief in Korso's ability or willingness. It could have been the opposite. Maybe, with his unflinching ideals, Sam had believed that Korso would do it anyway.

* * *

A/N: Pretty much because I was wondering why Cale wasn't taken in on the sell the Titan plot if he seemed to have primarily mercenary motivations in the beginning of the film. He didn't even seem that bothered by the Drej when they waltzed into the cafeteria, until they started shooting at him. Half of this was written when I was dead tired in the middle of the night, so it's far from my best work, but I wanted to stay as close to the writing deadline as possible and still get in what I wanted.


End file.
